(Image via handout)

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti is urging President Obama to get behind a movement to grant NYC's the Stonewall Inn and its neighboring Christopher Park national landmark status as places with a unique distinction in history.

In an open letter, Garcetti writes:

Although the struggle for equal rights extends from coast to coast, the Stonewall Riots in 1969 served as an historic turning point in LGBT history. Recognizing the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park in New York City's West Village would honor the American LGBT experience in every city and help to teach people of an important historical event that has helped to shape our nation.

Read Garcetti's entire letter after the jump ...